Calling all Partners who will be in and around Austin during South by Southwest this year: the YouTube team is hosting a Partner Meet-up at SXSW in Austin on Monday, March 12 from 4PM to 7PM. It's open to any Partners who'd like to stop by, listen to a brief presentation, and chat with members of our Partner Support team. Here are the details:

AGENDA:
4 to 4:45 PM -- Presentation on YouTube updates, including Channels and Google+
4:45 to 5 -- Q & A with Presenters
5 to 7 -- Time to chat with other partners as well as YouTube presenters and team

This year’s not-so-short month of February brought us lots of talented YouTube Partners as part of our monthly "On The Rise" program, and in the end, marydoodles, is the partner featured on today's YouTube homepage.

Mary Gutfleisch came to Los Angeles by way of Minnesota and Chicago, and now spends her days making props and costumes for Epic Rap Battles of History. But her true passion is making pictures - her work spans techniques such as watercolor painting, pen and ink, and chalk drawings. And the subjects of Mary’s work are just as varied: she’s covered dragons, teddy bears, zombie-style self portraits, and she’s even captured the elusive narwhal.

Here are a few words from Mary:

First off, I’d love to give a big shout out to every single teacher who caught me drawing in their class but never made me stop. It was very rude of me. I apologize. I’ve always loved creating art and I LOVE movies and making videos! So to be able to combine the two...it feels like the best Christmas ever and it’s not even Christmas. And the most amazing thing is that this is all supported by many many many individuals (like yourself) who watch. So thank YOU! And thanks to the folks at YouTube for recognizing my channel and to all my friends over at Epic Rap Battles of History for letting me ride your coattails (I will dry clean your coat). It’s awesome to be able to connect with other artists and fans alike and I hope to inspire you as much as you’ve inspired me. Art is more accessible now than ever before and I feel lucky to be able to sharedji/kjmOMG! I JUST SPILLED HOT TEA ALL OVER MY ARM!!!

If you’ve enjoyed this monthly On The Rise blog series and want to see more rising YouTube partners, check out our On The Rise Channel. Keep an eye out for next month’s blog post, as your channel may be the next one On The Rise!

We’re constantly looking for new ways to take your YouTube channel to the next level. To help, we’re excited to announce the first series of YouTube Creator Workshops to help you refine your production and programming techniques, as well as your audience building skills.

The workshops, led by the YouTube Next Lab, are being held both in-person and in online classrooms thanks to Google+, so that anyone can attend from anywhere in the world. In-person workshops are currently limited to 20 YouTube partners to ensure an intimate experience for all attendees.

We have some open seats in the upcoming in-person seminars in New York City. If you’re interested, apply soon:

Stay tuned for future workshop in Los Angeles, New York City, as well as online.

What do you want to learn about?
We are already planning more upcoming workshops, but we want to hear from you. Tell us what kinds of workshop topics would be most helpful for you in our Google Moderator on that topic.

You keep adding and watching more videos, so we’re working to keep adding more ways for you to watch, share and enjoy the channels and videos on YouTube. This week in Release Notes we’ve got a new way to promote your Google+ profile on YouTube, more options in the Annotations Editor, posting to your Channel Feed and more.

Google+ profile on YouTubeWant to share your Google+ profile or Google+ Page on your YouTube channel? We’ve added a feature to let you promote your presence on G+. We’re looking for other ways to bring the benefits of Google+ to your YouTube channel, so as always please give us your feedback!

Post videos/playlists to your own feedYou can now share videos and playlists in your Channel Feed by posting a Channel Bulletin. When you’re on your Feed tab you’ll see a box “Post to Feed,” where you can enter a comment and add a link to share a video or a playlist. When you’ve posted the bulletin, it will show up in your Channel Feed with your comment below the video. Viewers who are subscribed to your channel will be notified when you post to your feed in their homepage feed.

Homepage and Channel FeedsAfter experiments and lots of your feedback, we’re releasing an update to how events are displayed in the feed. The update focuses on three main changes: (1) the video title is more prominent for upload and sharing events, (2) aggregated events now feature a “+more” button which will bring more attention to the event than the previously smaller notification and (3) adding videos to a playlist has a new cleaner styling.Before: After:AnnotationsCustomizing your videos is easier with our new annotations features. We’ve been adding more options to the Annotations Editor like a new annotation type, a full color palette and a new timeline. We’ve also added annotation styles, which lets you choose a templated design to apply to your videos. You can quickly pick a design for your annotation and apply it your video. Start using these today in the Editor by clicking the arrow next to any upload in the Video Manager.The YouTube Team recently watched, “KevJumba vs. NY Yankee Nick Swisher Ping Pong FaceOFF.”

On Thursday, February 23rd, the YouTube Partner team will be hosting a partner meet-up in New York City. During the meet-up, we'll be live streaming the latest episode of Partner Support Talks with.... featuring a YouTube partner answering questions submitted by YouTube users like you!In this episode, Partner Support Talks with...ChescaLeigh! We'll sit down with Franchesca to talk about how she's achieved success on YouTube. We'll also ask her YOUR questions, live, on the air.Want to know what inspires ChescaLeigh’s top videos? Wondering what it was like to be interviewed by Anderson Cooper? You have until next Monday to submit your questions (and vote for others) here to be answered live: http://goo.gl/3YQHyTune in towww.youtube.com/youtube at 5:30pm EST on February 23rd to watch the show live! We'll also post the show on www.youtube.com/partnersupport after the show.Lindsay Hampton, YouTube Partner Support, recently watched "SUPER BOWL SHOULDER WORKOUT! "Gimme All Your Luvin'"."

YouTube Next Cause is designed to help organizations that are already changing the world better use online video to drive action. At a one-day summit in San Francisco on April 2, selected participants will get access to everything from training in YouTube fundamentals, to promotion and community engagement tips, to one-on-one consulting sessions to grow their YouTube presence.

We’ve always sought to make YouTube a platform for nonprofits to broadcast their messages. And we’ve seen amazing things happen when the YouTube community comes together in support of great causes. With 4 billion views a day, we want to make sure nonprofits have the tools they need to reach the global audience on YouTube and turn video views into donations, volunteerism and awareness.

Applications for YouTube Next Cause are due on February 27, 2012 at 11:59PM PST, and the selected nonprofits will be announced on March 5th. This program is open to organizations that are part of the YouTube Nonprofit Program (full eligibility requirements). You can apply online at: http://goo.gl/ODbI6.

Check out what nonprofits are doing on YouTube at youtube.com/nonprofits. And tune in around March 5th to learn more about some of the great nonprofit organizations chosen and what they’re doing to change the world!

Each month for our On The Rise program, we identify four YouTube Partner Channels who are experiencing big growth in subscribers but haven’t yet reached the 100,000 subscriber mark. This month’s nominees include talented Partners including entertainers and educators. Need a car repair tips or fun baking ideas? Want to learn about music production, or watch a drawing come to life? Look no further than the Partner videos below.

What else can you do? These partners need your support to help one them reach the YouTube homepage: check out their videos below and be sure to vote for your favorite in the top right-hand corner of the Official YouTube blog. In addition to the poll results, a team here at YouTube will evaluate each Channel based on criteria like audience engagement and Channel optimization, and will help decide which Channel we’ll feature on the homepage, Facebook and Twitter at the end of the month.

In past months, Partners like ThePortraitArt and CaliforniaTravelTips have seen growth in their audience and video engagement thanks to your support. You have until February 17th at 5pm PT to vote for your favorite Channel, and check back to see who has secured the homepage feature on February 28th.

marydoodles
Hailing from Los Angeles, Mary’s day job involves creating props and costumes for Epic Rap Battles of History. Her real hobby, though, is drawing - she’s been doing it her whole life. Check out Mary’s channel to witness her talent in motion.

yoyomax12
Need creative baking ideas for Valentine’s day, birthdays, or a special occasion? Whether you’re an experienced baker or just learning to bake, Tammy’s channel offers easy-to-follow instructional videos packed with fun ideas and recipes for cookies, bars, and cupcakes.

wwwboyinabandcom
Dave is passionate about music: he’s in a band, and he’s dedicated his YouTube channel to hosting free music production tutorials. Listen to his original music, learn how to set up a home studio, read music software/hardware reviews, and more on this Telford, England, native’s channel.

EricTheCarGuy
Eric is a certified master technician dedicated to the art of auto repair and helping the “do-it-yourselfer.” He attended art school, but then shifted his focus to automotives and fell in love with it. Check out his channel to learn how to drive a stick shift, replace a fuel pump, or shim a starter.

If you’re interested in checking out more rising YouTube Partners, visit our On The Rise channel, which features nominees, trending partners and monthly blog winners.

On Thursday, February 16th, the YouTube Partner Support team will be hosting a partner meet-up in Los Angeles. During the meet-up, we'll be filming the latest episode of Partner Support Talks with.... featuring a YouTube partner answering questions submitted by YouTube users like you!In this episodewe'll sit down with two partners - LiamKyleSullivan and ChesterSee - to talk about how they've achieved success on YouTube. We'll also ask them YOUR questions!Is there something you'd like to ask Liam about his YouTube history? Want Chester's advice on best practices? You have until next Wednesday (2/15) to submit your questions (and vote for others) here to be answered live: http://goo.gl/2rb4LWe'll post the show onwww.youtube.com/ytcreators after the show.

One of the most rewarding projects I worked on in 2011 was the Next Creator program (comprised of YouTube NextUp, YouTube Next Chef, and YouTube Next Trainer), which has catapulted 91 content creators’ careers across 15 different countries by providing them with production and audience development training, new video equipment, heavy promotion on and off the platform, and mentoring by leading movers like YouTube stars DeStorm, FreddieW and Michelle Phan and industry experts like Chow.com and Billy Blanks.

But what’s next for the Next Creator program? There are still millions of creators who could benefit from participating in the program, so we’re excited to continue to expand the program further. That’s where YOU come in! We'd like to hear which type of content we should launch for the next round. Maybe you're a budding beauty guru and want to see YouTube Next Beautician; or, perhaps you're a habitual big personality vlogger and have been waiting for YouTube Next Vlogger.

Whatever you want to see next, let us know by voting on some categories and by suggesting your own here. You may vote and submit as many as you’d like before February 19th. We'll then evaluate the top-voted suggestions and bring some of these to you this year!

2012 is going to be an incredibly exciting year for YouTube creators. Stay tuned for more initiatives that will empower you to take your YouTube career to the next level--coming very soon!

We are excited about our upcoming meet-ups and to meet with more of the partner community. Here's info on where we will be when as well as how to sign up for the events or stay in touch with us!

Los Angeles -- Thursday, February 16 -- Meet with our support team and our product team to learn more about YouTube and managing your channel. If you're interested, fill out this form: goo.gl/qMTjD by Monday, February 6.

New York -- Thursday, February 23 -- Livestream event in the late afternoon. The topics will include Google+ and interacting with the community as well as interview with Chescaleigh. If you're interested, fill out this form: goo.gl/Txe9t by Monday, February 13.

Austin -- Monday, March 12 -- Our team will be at SXSW and hosting a meet-up at the Tap Room in the late afternoon. If you are a partner and plan on being in Austin or attending SXSW, let us know at this form: goo.gl/pFSsI.

Orlando -- Friday, March 24 & Saturday, March 25 -- We'll be at Playlist Live in Orlando! If you are a partner and plan on attending Playlist Live, let us know at this form: goo.gl/1qNiW.

As we shared in December, we want you to have more options for how you organize and showcase your content on your YouTube Channel so you can continue to grow your audience. To that end, we launched a new design for Channels, which allows you to select one of four templates to better fit your needs as a creator, as well as customizations to keep your viewers engaged and coming back.

In order to provide your viewers with a consistent experience across YouTube, we’d like you to migrate your current Channel to the new design by March 7. We will automatically convert all Channels on the site to the new design on March 7, so update yours before then to make sure it is set up to your liking. If you haven’t already, you can opt in by clicking the blue “Try the new design” button on the top of your Channel page. You may also switch back to the old Channels design repeatedly before March 7 by clicking the “Switch Back” button in the appearance tab of the Edit Channel menu on your new Channel. To help you get your Channel fully ready, we have resources within the Help Center.Your feedback on the new design has been tremendously helpful as we continue to make refinements to improve both your and your viewers’ experiences. We hope that you have a successful transition to this new design.The YouTube Partnerships Team